Development continues in countermeasures for protecting aircraft from hostile RF-guided missiles. One protective approach is jamming. However, a number of problems are presented by this technique when RF-guided missiles employ a wide spectrum for guidance. Jamming requires substantial power levels to override guidance signals; and since modern guidance systems "hop" between various frequencies in a selected frequency band, the real time jamming of an entire spectrum is necessary. As a result, jamming is spectrum inefficient.
One means for protecting aircraft from hostile RF-guided missiles is the employment of chaff. However, relatively large chaff cartridges must be employed to cover a large space about an aircraft and environmental conditions always present problems for the effectiveness of chaff.